To many out there the name Stan Lee equates to nerd royalty, and I would be in that group. Stan Lee was one of the founding fathers of Marvel Comics. He helped bring us so many comic book characters that we grew up with, and he has been a part of our lives since we first picked up our first comic. My first comic that really stands out to me has to be Spider-man, I'm not exactly sure what issue it was exactly, but upon diving into my first adventure with Peter Parker, spoiler alert he's Spider-man, I was hooked.

For the young ones out there you probably don't know of this concept called "Comic Day", it was a day that happened once a month where you went into a comic book store and purchased all the comics you had subscribed to, but that was one of the happiest days for me. It was all about the new adventures, the new twists, the evil schemings of the bad guys, and of course, being a guy, the curvaceous figures of the ladies. Speaking of which that last reason was why my mom cancelled my subscription to X-men and then wrote a strongly worded letter, which she actually had to put in the mail box (gasp I know, that box thing that collects all that crap mail was actually used to transport conversations from one place to another). I can't remember if my mom actually got a letter back, but that, also, was something quite memorable with my love of Marvel Comics.

Marvel Comics was the reason why, along with MANY young kids, I wanted to be a comic book artist. Now safe to say I didn't ever quite get to that quality, but that didn't stop me from begging my mom to let me take a comic drawing class over one summer. Ironically I don't really remember actually drawing anything, I'm sure I did, but I do remember that during one of the breaks, EACH DAY, I would go to the vending machine and get a Hawaiian Punch can and a 3 Musketeers bar. That's right folks sugar was my muse, or at least I had one hell of a sweet tooth, and still do (however that combo no longer works for me).

Stan Lee was also this mythical creature that would appear in person or voice in TV shows and movies. Now I could be wrong, but I felt like he also had some sort of comic drawing/adventure show, but as it has been many many years, I can't be sure. Of course the cameos that Stan Lee made in all the Marvel movies were classic. He was always a throwaway character that did have a humorous moment before fading into the back.

I have to be honest, after his wife's death, I kind of felt that his time on this earth was coming to a close, but as many out there, I could NEVER imagine not having Stan Lee around. As many people having pointed out, he might be gone in body, but his soul/essence will not die. He has made an impact on so many people in so many ways. So I have one request of all, you readers, raise a glass and repeat after me "EXCELSIOR!!!”

As we apparently have decided that nostalgia will be dictated by the manufactures of consoles and their "Top X Games" we see the PlayStation Classic enter the ring. Now I have to say that the list of games is a little bit more in-line with what I would like to see in a "Classic" console, but at the same time this will be yet another item that I will not be purchasing simply because all the games for the PlayStation that I want to play I still own.

For those out there who want to know what the 20 titles that will be on this system are, here's the list:

Battle Arena Toshinden

Cool Boarders 2

Destruction Derby

Final Fantasy VII

Grand Theft Auto

Intelligent Qube

Jumping Flash

Metal Gear Solid

Mr Driller

Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee

Rayman

Resident Evil Director’s Cut

Revelations: Persona

Ridge Racer Type 4

Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo

Syphon Filter

Tekken 3

Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six

Twisted Metal

Wild Arms

If these titles are enough for you to drop the $99.99 that they are asking for you're going to want to pre-order it right away (Currently Amazon is listing as Currently Unavailable). The system is set to release on December 3rd. Can anyone say Holiday Gift for your nerdy people?

Octopath Traveler, brought to us by Square Enix, allows the gamer to immerse themselves into a world where eight complete strangers are going to find out that their paths cross many times. Do you get it? Eight people (Octo) with paths (PATH) that continue to cross as they adventure (Travelers) through the world. If you are a fan of the older Final Fantasies you'll be in for a treat. The turn-based battle system with a couple of upgrades will make sure that you do exactly what you meant to do without feeling like you're being pressured for time. You'll also unlock special attacks when you're battle points are at maximum.

This is one of those games that I just had too many questions about that I couldn't leave it alone. I had to see what it was all about, and so I did. I dumped 80+ hours into the game. I played through all 8 storylines, and I will have to admit the grind was real, however there was just enough originality to each storyline that it kept me wanting to continue on. The one thing that definitely helped fuel my fire/desire to keep going was that there was a recommended level for each story chapter, area, etc. This definitely kept the level of frustration down while allowing me to have obtainable goals.

Another layer/wrinkle that definitely needs talking about is the secondary skills of the characters. These skills allow for the player to approach certain things or obtain certain things. So with that being a bit vague let’s do a slightly closer look. The thief is able to attempt to steal items off of specific NPCs (when you see the items on that character you'll also be given a percentage chance of success). The merchant allows the player to purchase items off of specific NPCs (Honestly I usually had both the thief and merchant in my party in town so that I can steal all I could, and if there was something I REALLY wanted I just bought it off them).

As you might imagine there other six pair off just like the thief and merchant did, the swordsman and the hunter have the ability to challenge specific NPCs, the Cleric and Dancer can get specific NPCs to follow them (sometimes to places on the opposite side of the map), and then there's the scholar and apothecary which can find out additional information from specific NPCs (sometimes you'll find out hidden treasure locations in the current town).

There, sadly, were a couple of things about this game that made this game EXTREMELY frustrating. If you advance a certain character's story faster than others you're going to find that information that is known by the entire party will be forgotten when you continue another character's story. It is understandable that the player should play each character's chapter and then rotate to another character's, but since you're given the ability to play as many chapters of a specific character as you want it just feels off. There's also no EASY way to tie this entire game nicely. Personally I had to Google how to do it, and then got thoroughly pissed.

Without going into spoilers I will tell you this, 95% of the game is an enjoyable game. I liked the deep story, the unique characters, the interesting side-quests, and basically the overall game. The thing is that the way that the developers decided to tie everything together is utter bullshit, and because of this it feels like this game wasn't completely thought through and it suffers as a result.